Have you got favourite Goddesses or Gods

Have you got favourite Goddesses or Gods

There are thousands of Goddesses or Gods - but I only list 10

Which ones would you choose?

 

One of the twelve original Olypians, borne of Chronos, yet the least mentioned or discussed nowadays. I will argue that I have chosen undoubtedly the most pervasive in influence on the daily lives of Greeks. The more you read about her here https://pantheon.org/articles/h/hestia.html and the more you think about how constant and ever-present her 'shrines' actually were, both in the homes, and the towns of Greece, the more you realize that that matronly yet eternally dull, Hestia was incredibly important. None of you will recall myths surrounding Hestia, no stories, no melodrama, no feuds, no rapes, shapeshifting, no wars, no gossip, but she was absolutely everywhere.

". As the hearth was looked upon as the sacred center of domestic life, so Hestia was the goddess of domestic life and the giver of all domestic happiness and blessings, and as such she was believed to dwell in the inner part of every house,4 and to have invented the art of building houses.5 In this respect she appears often together with Hermes, who was likewise a deus penetralis, as protecting the works of man.6 As the hearth of a house is at the same time the altar on which sacrifices are offered to the domestic gods (ἑστιοῦχοι, hestiouchoi, or ἐφέστιοι, ephestioi), Hestia was looked upon as presiding at all sacrifices, and, as the goddess of the sacred fire of the altar, she had a share in the sacrifices in all the temples of the gods.7 Hence when sacrifices were offered, she was invoked first, and the first part of the sacrifice was offered to her.8 Solemn oaths were sworn by the goddess of the hearth, and the hearth itself was the sacred asylum where suppliants implored the protection of the inhabitants of the house...A town or city is only an extended family, and therefore had likewise its sacred hearth, the symbol of an harmonious community of citizens and of a common worship. This public hearth usually existed in the prytaneium of a town, where the goddess had her especial sanctuary (Δάλαμος, Dalamos), under the name of Prytanitis (Πρυτανῖτις), with a statue and the sacred hearth. There the prytanes offered sacrifices to her, on entering upon their office, and there, as at a private hearth, Hestia protected the suppliants. As this public hearth was the sacred asylum in every town, the state usually received its guests and foreign ambassadors there, and the prytanes had to act the part of hosts."

See if Hestia is not happy, then NOBODY is happy.

 

Who knows Hestia?

 

Now I have looked up Hestia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hestia

 

I like Eostre!

 

Athena, and I can go into a lot more detail here. Though I do love Hestia getting some love here, @btthegreat

I don't believe in the literal existence of the gods, but I do find some coincidences meaningful and impactful, and when I'm at my most vulnerable and in a time of need, I often encounter an owl (Athena's symbol). Most recently, I took my dog for a drive just to clear my head after having a really tough time with my home life, my work life, and . . . well, pretty much everything. I stopped to turn around and go back home, and there was an owl statue right there in the drive way that I was turning in. Owl statues aren't unusual, but this isn't the first time this has happened to me. But it gets better.

As I'm driving home, I notice, on that same road, another owl statue . . . and another . . . and another . . . and another.

I ended up driving up and down that street. There were over 20 owl statues on a road just over a mile long. Some of them were flower pots, some were metal statues, some were cartoonish, some were realistic, etc., so it wasn't like they were all there to scare off birds. I checked the neighboring streets . . . not a single owl. This was something unique to the street I had turned down. I've gone back there to walk around and have asked passersby "What's the deal with all of the owls?" No one has an answer.

They aren't just there to scare off birds, and it isn't like there is a local school or anything that has an owl as mascot (I checked). Nope, just a random street I happened to turn down with owls all over the place, and no neighboring street is like it.

I don't believe it was supernatural, or anything like that, but given my love for Athena and given the situation I was in at the time, it was uplifting.

 

I prefer statuesque to statuary.

 

Even if one does not believe in Goddesses, one can be in love with some of them!

 

I went through my Greek myth phase, with Edith Hamilton etc and I was wierd enough to notice that all the other figures had pages and pages and Hestia had like two paragraphs and no juicy stories, so I went looking for Hestia related tales of drama, and strife etc. There are none. No juicy gossip about Hestia at all. And the more I read, the more inflential Hestia was in the daily lives of Greeks. They literally had a prebuilt alter in every home and city devoted to her and it wasn't taken for granted at all as Hestia was invoked first, above all others when sacrifice time arrived. Being as 'domestic bliss', and a happy family life, are most prized in getting happiness anywhere else, its not a shock. That is what I call POWER. This domestic Godess should have been a true feminist icon, rather than Athena or Artemis, Demeter or Hera because she got to the very top of the God food chain without being tricked, raped, or manipulated by other Gods or men on her way up. She did not ever even need a man in her life or need to use one to get ahead.

 

Aphrodite : Goddess of Love, Beauty, Pleasure | Greek Mythology

 

Why am I not thinking about any Edith Hamilton quote with this post? Instead, something about this content reminds me of a famous President Carter quote.

"I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. Godess (sic) knows, I will do this and forgives me."

Jimmy Carter

 

May I introduce the God of Thursday?


In German: Thursday = Donnerstag -

and Donner = thunder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor

 

Freya has got TWO votes now!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja

 

Freya rides a chariot pulled by two cats - now isn't that quite original!

 

https://sonsofvikings.com/blogs/history/viking-origins-of-christmas-yule-traditions

Here is a very interesting and a quite logical theory!

 

I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.

 

Well, I'm going with Aphrodite.

 

Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers

(With thanks to the one true creator, Sir Terry Pratchett)

 

Now I know its a fraud. No diety no matter how omnipotent, and prescient, can read the minds of two cats simultaniously, let direct them into obediant servants of a divine will.

 

You are wrong!
Those cats do that of their own free will!
Cats are intelligent!
They can tell a Goddess if they see one!

 

Well done!

 

Mono-theist godheads have no access here.
We are in the poly-theist section here!

 

And you believe that there are two cats with the same free will, doing the same thing in complete cohesion, harmony and synchony? Cats? You are more than a man of deep and abiding faith in your Goddess. Its a cult that has grabbed you!

 

If you can believe in Goddesses, you can also believe in cats! It's even easier!

 

I do believe in cats. I can fantasize about me believing in Goddesses. Its the premise of this specific kind of interaction between the two, that blows my imagination into shards of shattered glass. They were shapeshifting hooved animals named Prancer and Vixen that appeared as cats.